I'm all in for dumping Idaho as soon as possible and staying at 10 teams. While we are at 10 teams, EKU and MoSt can improve facilities and such. Take them in a few years down the road and all is well in the SBC.

Coming to a SunBelt near you.... NMSU for all sports, UMass for football only. And it won't be a long wait.

Like Idaho, Umass will be a temporary deal. It's a convenient arrangement for them and the SB. They get time to build their football program up for the AAC and some other schools get time to prepare for the SunBelt.

I see a major realignment in the G5 conferences down the road. There is only so much TV money to go around. Once those funds are sucked out of the system by the P5 playoff, schools will be forced to realign into regional conferences in order to get the ridiculous travel expenses under control. That is why it is imperative to get a seat at the FBS table now. Once the door is closed and locked those on the outside will wander in the FCS wasteland for a long time.

(04-16-2014 08:11 PM)AppManDG Wrote: Coming to a SunBelt near you.... NMSU for all sports, UMass for football only. And it won't be a long wait.

Like Idaho, Umass will be a temporary deal. It's a convenient arrangement for them and the SB. They get time to build their football program up for the AAC and some other schools get time to prepare for the SunBelt.

I see a major realignment in the G5 conferences down the road. There is only so much TV money to go around. Once those funds are sucked out of the system by the P5 playoff, schools will be forced to realign into regional conferences in order to get the ridiculous travel expenses under control. That is why it is imperative to get a seat at the FBS table now. Once the door is closed and locked those on the outside will wander in the FCS wasteland for a long time.

(04-16-2014 08:11 PM)AppManDG Wrote: Coming to a SunBelt near you.... NMSU for all sports, UMass for football only. And it won't be a long wait.

Like Idaho, Umass will be a temporary deal. It's a convenient arrangement for them and the SB. They get time to build their football program up for the AAC and some other schools get time to prepare for the SunBelt.

I see a major realignment in the G5 conferences down the road. There is only so much TV money to go around. Once those funds are sucked out of the system by the P5 playoff, schools will be forced to realign into regional conferences in order to get the ridiculous travel expenses under control. That is why it is imperative to get a seat at the FBS table now. Once the door is closed and locked those on the outside will wander in the FCS wasteland for a long time.

If NMSU leaves the WAC, the WAC loses its autobids. NMSU looks at the WAC as a convenient vessel to relatively easily gain the autobid. Maybe Grand Canyon (which isn't eligible yet) or UVU will be challengers, but the WAC is a more reliable launching pad for a NCAA bid. The Sun Belt would be tougher sledding in all sports, without much gain in money (except for FB).

(04-16-2014 08:11 PM)AppManDG Wrote: Coming to a SunBelt near you.... NMSU for all sports, UMass for football only. And it won't be a long wait.

Like Idaho, Umass will be a temporary deal. It's a convenient arrangement for them and the SB. They get time to build their football program up for the AAC and some other schools get time to prepare for the SunBelt.

I see a major realignment in the G5 conferences down the road. There is only so much TV money to go around. Once those funds are sucked out of the system by the P5 playoff, schools will be forced to realign into regional conferences in order to get the ridiculous travel expenses under control. That is why it is imperative to get a seat at the FBS table now. Once the door is closed and locked those on the outside will wander in the FCS wasteland for a long time.

If NMSU leaves the WAC, the WAC loses its autobids. NMSU looks at the WAC as a convenient vessel to relatively easily gain the autobid. Maybe Grand Canyon (which isn't eligible yet) or UVU will be challengers, but the WAC is a more reliable launching pad for a NCAA bid.

NMSU would leave for SBC all sports in a heart beat. Their President has openly admitted that.

(04-16-2014 08:11 PM)AppManDG Wrote: Coming to a SunBelt near you.... NMSU for all sports, UMass for football only. And it won't be a long wait.

Like Idaho, Umass will be a temporary deal. It's a convenient arrangement for them and the SB. They get time to build their football program up for the AAC and some other schools get time to prepare for the SunBelt.

I see a major realignment in the G5 conferences down the road. There is only so much TV money to go around. Once those funds are sucked out of the system by the P5 playoff, schools will be forced to realign into regional conferences in order to get the ridiculous travel expenses under control. That is why it is imperative to get a seat at the FBS table now. Once the door is closed and locked those on the outside will wander in the FCS wasteland for a long time.

If NMSU leaves the WAC, the WAC loses its autobids. NMSU looks at the WAC as a convenient vessel to relatively easily gain the autobid. Maybe Grand Canyon (which isn't eligible yet) or UVU will be challengers, but the WAC is a more reliable launching pad for a NCAA bid.

NMSU would leave for SBC all sports in a heart beat. Their President has openly admitted that.

That is correct. Based on comments by our president NMSU would quickly accept a Sun Belt bid.

Even though the WAC does offer an easier path to the NCAA tourney (for several sports) and the travel in the WAC would be a little easier (for all it's far flung locations - most WAC schools are located near major airports) the Sun Belt offers much greater stability. Plus the benefit of having all sports in one conference. Less administrative costs/burden and greater sense of conference identity.

You know I hate driving past Newport but try as I may I've not found a practical way to get Jonesboro from Little Rock without going through Newport. Newport isn't my destination and not my target but I have to go there to get where I want to go.

That's what JMU's administration doesn't understand. Odds are stacked against them getting where they want to go without already being FBS. The question isn't whether they WANT to join the Sun Belt. The question is how realistic is it that they can arrive at their preferred destination without holding membership in FBS.

When FAU started football Howard made it clear their goal was Big East but he learned a lesson from his Louisville mistake. At FAU he understood he couldn't leap directly to the place he wanted to go to and had to take intermediary steps.

At Louisville when the Metro was talking of adding football (the fabled Super Metro) but the organizing meetings were ongoing even though there was rampant speculation that even if it happened, Florida State and maybe South Carolina would never actually join because of other opportunities. The deal fell apart because Howard didn't recognize the marketplace had changed. He thought the era of the independent was still strong and Louisville could be a national player and maybe use that success to get in one of the big name brand leagues. They walked and when they walked talks collapsed and once that happened, the Big East picked up the pieces, but not with a 16 or 14 team league but an 8 team league a year later. Seven years later the Big East became one of the six AQ conferences. Four years after the Big East added football, CUSA formed and Louisville soon learned with the formation of the BCS, they had made a critical error by killing the Super Metro, that league would have garnered AQ status. For the next several years Louisville scrambled to try to get in the Big East and finally made it then they ended up being the (so far) last team invited into the P5.

Louisville had failed to realize initially that they needed to adjust to the time and take the intermediate step to get where they wanted to be. They ended up OK but probably delayed their move to the big time by several years.